i’m saying nowt else…

It’s the UKScrappers Sponsors Blog Hop on the 1st November.  Come and hop with us, there will be prizes along the way.  Further details will be announced on UKScrappers on the 31st October.

sometimes we hide things

It’s not often, but when I get extremely angry I need to take it out on something, vent my frustrations.  Art journalling have saved my sanity on those occasions.  I can get down all the screaming thoughts and then, as I did on this page, cover them up.  

I opened my journal found a double page that already had a coat of gesso on it, and set about writing across it.  Seems I had a lot to say as I then turned t round and ranted back over the first layer! Eek.  I wanted some of that writing to show through on the final page so I used light layers of acrylic paint and simple shapes over it, and added dots with my favourite stencil.  I quite like the end result and I know how much better I felt for getting it all off my chest.

Thanks for stopping by!

artists in waiting…?

      

As it’s half term here I have a bunch of plans for the kids this week to keep them occupied.  At the weekend I popped into The Works and picked up a bunch of canvasses – 4 5”x7” for £1.99!  Be rude not to really. 

In a bid to be a bit more relaxed about relaxed about it (I watch them like a hawk when they paint – I hate the mess…I know worlds most messy crafter!) I even let them loose with my supplies. Yep, out came the baskets of paint dabbers and the neocolour II crayons.  Guess what somebody wants for Christmas now.  Both of the kids loved the neocolours.

 

The plan is to hang them all up on a blank wall in the kitchen and start a canvas gallery of their work.  We have some from when they were really little in nice frames.  Jamie took his inspiration from the house and below, the garden.  Rosie is more abstract in her approach, but I love them all and we had a fabulous time.  Jamie has even declared he’d like to be an artist when he grows up…  ahhh, I can live in hope!

simple sundays

 

fresh homemade bread to go with fresh homemade soup = aching arms from all that kneading and the morning in a kitchen full of fabulous smells.

birds

I had a fabulous three days on a workshop with Dina Wakely. A truly talented lady if ever there was one!  Day one we painted birds, the backgrounds were meant to be full of art journal techniques to add some interest, but in all honesty when I painted my canvas I just loved it before I got to that part, so I stopped.

So here’s my practice piece with a single bird, and below the three birds again but with some extra elements in the background.

I’m thinking I may do another canvas as I enjoyed making these so much.  Maybe I should add some into my journals.

wood mounted loveliness

   

Oh heck, all plans have gone out of the window the last couple of days due to some new goodies arriving for the shop. First of all, after what feels like a very long wait, I am sooo pleased to be stocking Stampotique Originals.

     

     

When the delivery came, Jamie and I sat and unpacked it to check everything was there.  The best part – all the ooh’s and ahhh’s from both of us! He loved the designs and has declared when he grows up he’s going to buy one of all of them.  How brilliant is that?! 
Today saw the very long awaited arrival of the new distress stains, Claudine Hellmuth’s mini Studio kits, the new Perfect Pearl mists (ooooh – such amazing colours) and the kraft and black ATC’s, No. 5 and No. 8 tags from Rangers (No.8 being the larger size).  I’m working hard to get as many of these on the website as I can, but please be patient with me as I’m off on a three day workshop from tomorrow with the amazingly talented Dina Wakley.  Super cool stuff!  I loved the workshop I did with her earlier this year and ran for my credit card when I saw she was over again teaching. 
Right, kids to get into bed, quick tidy round and then back to uploading all these new goodies. And I mist remember to take my little pocket camera with me tomorrow.
Happy creating folks!

gotta love a bit of bingo!

I say that, last time I played bingo I must have been about 10 at the local working men’s club with my Nan.  Been a while then!  I do love Bingo Cards though, from the mini Jenni Bowlin ones to freebie ones like this one.  Feel free to download it, I found it here, on a lovely blog full of stuff to download.

Enjoy!

I’m at it again

yep, cries of abandoned blog!  Sorry about that, I just seem to be busy at the moment.  Not so busy there are not enough hours in the day, but busy enough to mean that the ole blog has been ever so slightly abandoned.  Because of that I have made the decision to “abandon blog” for the shop, and just use this blog.  So, for those of you not interested in what’s happening with the shop, I apologise.  My aim is not to turn this into a blog all about the shop, but I will announce special offers and share my general excitement of new stock (finally) arriving when it does.  I just figure it will be easier to manage from one blog, with all the Facebook updates as well.

 

So, it is my great pleasure to announce that we now have gift vouchers!  yay!  You can find all the info and how to buy and spend them here.  All I’m going to mention is that you don’t have to spend them in one go either, we’ll keep track of the balance for you until you’ve used them all up.

Ok, for now I need to be getting on with life and family stuff, then a huge pile of creative books to read, and a project or two to be getting on with. 

Have a fabulous weekend where ever you are!

Smash away your life

A couple of years ago I came across Ali Edwards Week in Your Life project and thought what a great idea, made easier if you prep in advance for it.  I don’t do the project the same time as Ali’s run’s.  To be honest I do when I remember and think that just maybe I can make the time for it.

So, today I’m starting this years week using a Smash book, and have spent the morning preparing a few pages with ink, paint and stamps and making some tags ready to pop in to it.  Lots to do yet, but I have somewhere to start for todays notes.

Now I just have to keep going!

treats

Girls gotta have treats right? Now I just need brown boots…and brown shoes to go with it. Ho-hum.  Anyway – it was a bargain at 40% off rrp. I can justify it.  I can. Honest. No really, I can.  I wanted it. See, justified.

Soggy

Another page from the journal I took away with me to mark my first experience of Florida rain. Like everything else in America it’s bigger and bolder than in the UK.  The first time I got very soggy shoes, the second time, I took them off and went barefoot, and it was lovely.

I’m not especially fond of the writing, but I sat with a pen and did it and then decided I should have done it differently.  I partly wished I’d taken some small letter stickers with me. Oh well hindsight and all that, again. Tough really, I used what I had and that was what fitted in my pencil case.

Lazy pages

I’m fast coming a fan of lazy pages in my art journals.  By that I means ones that take very little doing but I find myself going back again and again to look at them.

This one is from my Florida journal.  The background is super simple – it’s a mop up from another stencil spraying session with a few extra spots on top. The flower centres are made from off cuts of sticky-back canvas that had been sprayed with color wash.  I simple cut them out and plopped them on the page without thinking. See lazy as can be.

The leaves, grass and doodles around the flowers (not that I knew that’s what they’d be when I stuck the circles in) were all drawn with water-soluble pencils and coloured with inktense pencils.  Add journalling and ta-dah.  Finished.  Took me all of ten minutes to drag this one together, but I love it.  Guess that’s what counts in the end.

Right, I’m now off for a lazy dinner.  The man of the house has been slaving over an Indian (meal not person – should you be wondering…) for a couple of hours and I am about to devour it.  Delicious and lazy, for me anyway, not for him though.

still alive…..just

Hello, hello.  Just wanted to let you know that we survived Orlando, the parks, food, heat and the most stunning thunderstorms I’ve ever witnessed.  Since we got back I’ve been silly busy with the shop…buckets full of new stock has arrived (in boxes not buckets though ‘cause that would just be silly) and I’m working hard to get it all up loaded.

Whilst away I managed to mumble into 13 pages of my journal and I will share them with you just as soon as I get round to taking pictures of them. I haven’t even viewed our holiday snaps yet! I do at least know where the camera is since unpacking….a week ago. 

Still kids are back at school this week and Rosie finally starts school – hurrah! I’ll miss her company during the day but not her trail of destruction. This means I should get chance to get crafty – once I’ve done all my jobs that is.

Popping off again now – nice to ‘see’ you all again though.  Be back soon…ish.  Promise.

It seems I’m taking some time off…..

Oh blimey, I came to my blog to have a catch up hopping session and noticed that it’s been a month since I last posted.  Eeek, sorry folks.  Life seems to have taken me elsewhere and now I’m about to go on a much needed holiday.   Normal service…ish, should resume in September.   If nothing else I’ll have a heck of a lot of scrapping to do from the holiday.

However, you may be interested to know that the shop will remain open while we are away. Any orders placed between 09:00 Friday 12th August & 21:00 Sunday 28th August will get an extra something in your parcel if you spend over £25.00.

Orders placed after 09:00 on Friday will be posted out from Tuesday 30th August.

See you on September!

journal on your doodles

After all that doodling, I’ve now written on it and for me, it just brings the page to life.  Thought you might like to see what it looks like, and thank you for all your comments on this page from the previous post.  It’s nice to know you like it.

I’ve got a couple of watercolour backgrounds drying at the moment so fingers crossed over the next few days I’ll have more pages to share.